Guam - Home Healthcare Agencies Address and Contact

Home health care is a wide range of health care services that can be given in your home for an illness or injury. Home health care is usually less expensive, more convenient, and just as effective as care you get in a hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF). The goal of home health care is to treat an illness or injury. Home health care helps you get better, regain your independence, and become as self-sufficient as possible. Find home health care agencies in Guam.

What is a Home Health Care Agency?
A public agency or private organization, or a subdivision of such an agency or organization, that is primarily engaged in providing skilled nursing services and other therapeutic services, such as physical therapy, speech-language pathology services, or occupational therapy, medical social services, and home health aide services.
It has policies established by a professional group associated with the agency or organization (including at least one physician and one registered nurse) to govern the services and provides for supervision of such services by a physician or a registered nurse; maintains clinical records on all patients; is licensed in accordance with State or local law or is approved by the State or local licensing agency as meeting the licensing standards, where applicable; and meets other conditions found by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be necessary for health and safety.

What should I expect from my home health care?
Doctor’s orders are needed to start care. Once your doctor refers you for home health services, the home health agency will schedule an appointment and come to your home to talk to you about your needs and ask you some questions about your health.
The home health agency staff will also talk to your doctor about your care and keep your doctor updated about your progress. It’s important that home health staff see you as often as the doctor ordered.

What is a NPI Number? : The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique identification number for covered health care providers. The NPI is a 10-position, intelligence-free numeric identifier (10-digit number). This means that the numbers do not carry other information about healthcare providers, such as the state in which they live or their medical specialty.
The NPI must be used in lieu of legacy provider identifiers in the HIPAA standards transactions. Covered health care providers and all health plans and health care clearinghouses must use the NPIs in the administrative and financial transactions adopted under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Where NPI should be used? : The NPI must be used in place of legacy provider identifiers, such as a Unique Provider Identification Number (UPIN), Online Survey Certification & Reporting (OSCAR) and National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC) in HIPAA standard transactions. There are two categories of health care providers for NPI enumeration purposes. Entity Type 1 providers are individual providers who render health care (e.g., physicians, dentists, nurses).
Sole proprietors and sole proprietorships are Entity Type 1 (Individual) providers. Organization health care providers (e.g., hospitals, home health agencies, ambulance companies) are considered Entity Type 2 (Organization) providers.

Who must obtain NPI? : All health care providers who are HIPAA-covered entities, whether they are individuals (e.g., physicians, nurses, dentists, chiropractors, physical therapists, or pharmacists) or organizations (e.g., hospitals, home health agencies, clinics, nursing homes, residential treatment centers, laboratories, ambulance companies, group practices, Health Maintenance Organizations [HMOs], suppliers of durable medical equipment, pharmacies) must obtain an NPI.
The NPI will be used by HIPAA-covered entities (e.g., health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers) to identify health care providers in HIPAA standard transactions. A covered health care provider, under HIPAA, is any health care provider who transmits health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction for which the Secretary of Health and Human Services has adopted a standard, even if the health care provider uses a business associate to do so.